a letter from the chair, january 2016 · celebrations of scientific breakthroughs and innovations...

Volume 46, Issue 3 January 2016

A letter from the Chair, January 2016

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings and happy new year to all members of the North Carolina section of the American Chemical Society. The past few months have been filled with celebrations, chemistry, outreach, and vibrant activities for our membership. Local section election ballots have been tallied, so please join me in welcoming Joonhyung Cho (UNC Chapel Hill) as the Chair‐elect. Other new executive committee representatives include James Harrington (RTI) as Councilor and Katherine Glasgow (Vinventions) as Alternate Councilor (P2).

Celebrations of scientific breakthroughs and innovations in chemistry were the highlight of the past year. Most notably, local Professors Paul Modrich (Duke University) and Aziz Sancar (UNC Chapel Hill) traveled to Sweden in December to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which they shared with Dr. Tomas Lindahl (Francis Crick Institute, UK), for their work toward understanding the mechanisms of DNA repair.(web ) Also in December, President Obama announced that Prof. Joseph DeSimone (UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University) will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at an upcoming White House ceremony; this will be highlighted in the next edition of the TarHelium. (web)

Our largest annual outreach event, the North Carolina State Fair booth and chemical demonstration show, was once again a huge success this fall thanks to a large number of local section volunteers and the leadership of Prof. Sasha Ormond (Meredith College.)(P10) Prof. Ormond has received an ACS Leadership Development Award and will travel to the YCC Leadership Development Workshop in Texas this month (P4). Speaking of younger chemists and volunteers, please look inside this issue to see fantastic submissions by winners of the ChemTube (P5) and K‐12 Illustrated Poem competitions (P6).

Local chemists of all ages remain highly active through discussion groups, meetings, and science‐related events. In the past few months, the NC ACS co‐sponsored vendor night with the Triangle Area Mass Spectrometry group, Fayetteville State University’s student chapter had their 3rd annual Mole Day celebration (P11), family day was held at the Nasher Art Museum in celebration of National Chemistry Week (P9), and the senior chemists, women chemists, and younger chemists committees (SCC, WCC, and YCC, respectively) joined forces to host 60 participants in tours of the Escher and da Vinci exhibits at the North Carolina Museum of Art (P9). The YCC hosted a

In This Issue:

ALetterfromtheChairP1ElectionsNewNC‐ACSExecutiveCommitteeMembers!P2NC‐ACSNewsDr.SashaOrmondhasbeenselectedfortheYCCLeadershipDevelopmentAward!P4ContestWinners!2015ChemTubeCompetitionWinnersAnnounced!P5Winnersofthe2015NCACSIllustratedPoemCompetitionP6SpecialEvents!YoungerChemistsCommitteeHoldsSocialEventP8NationalChemistryWeek–FamilyDayattheNasherMuseumofArtP9NCACSmembersvisited"WorldsofM.C.Escher"attheNCMAP9NC‐ACSatthe2015NorthCarolinaStateFairP10TheEducationCommitteehasatableattheNCSTAconferencep11MoleDayCelebrationatFayettevilleStateUniversityP11OpportunitiesTheACSlistingofgrantsandawardsavailabletolocalsections!P12ThereisanACSprogramdesignedtohelpgraduatestudentsplantheircareers!P12NSF‐FundedNetworktoBoostNanotechInnovationP13CallforJudges!TheRegion3ScienceandEngineeringFairislookingforafewgoodjudges!P14VolunteerOpportunities2016FestivalfortheEnoRiverP152016NationalChemistryWeekP15CallforNominationsMarcusE.HobbsandDistinguishedLecturerAwardsNominationsP162016ACSFellowsNominationsP16ContinuedP2

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January 2016 The TarHelium

successful networking social event in December at a local café (P8) and Project SEED held a well‐attended alumni reunion event in early January.

The NC ACS executive committee thanks local section member Charlie Goss and Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) for generously providing meeting space for our January meeting. The remainder of our 2016 executive committee meetings will be hosted by First Flight Venture Center (P23), and all are welcome to attend and learn more about the local section governance and opportunities for participation.

With warm regards, Dorian A. Canelas 2016 Chair, NC section of the ACS

NC ACS Election Results Submitted by Paige Presler‐Jur ([email protected])

We had 166 people vote in the election this year. The results are as follows:

NCACS History Charles Norwood Reilley P17 In Memory of Prof. George Wahl, Jr, P19 Mark Your Calendars! NCACS YCC/SCC Mentoring Program – Speed Networking Event P19 NCACS is on Facebook and LinkedIn P20 Local Science Cafes! P21 Education List Serves P22 NC‐ACS ListServs P22 NC‐ACS Local Section Executive Committee Meetings P23 NC‐ACS Local Section Executive Committee Members P24

The TarHelium is a publication of

The North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society (NCACS)

Dorian Canelas, Chair Joonhyung Cho, Chair Elect Caroline Sloan, Secretary J. T. Bursey, Treasurer

Jamie Saunders, TarHelium Editor

TheTarHeliumispublished4timesayear.Thenews‐lettercanbeviewedat

http://ncacs.sites.acs.org/tarheliumnewsletter.htm.

TheviewsexpressedhereinarenotnecessarilythoseoftheSection.

Articles,Announcements,AdvertisementsandotherContentmaybesenttoJamieSaundersforconsideration.Pleaseusetheemailaddress:

[email protected]

919545‐9581.

Chair ‐Elect

Joonhyung Cho

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Alternate Councilor

Katherine C Glasgow

Councilor

James Harrington

Councilor

Al Crumbliss

Alternate Councilor

Dorian Canelas

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NC‐ACS News Dr. Sasha Ormond has been selected for the YCC Leadership Development Award! Submitted by Melissa Pasquinelli

This award enables Sasha to attend the Young Chemist Leadership Development Workshop at the ACS Leadership Development Institute, which is designed to help young chemists develop into highly skilled leaders in ACS and in their chosen profession.

Sasha is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Meredith College in Raleigh. She is the faculty advisor to the ACS chapter at Meredith, where she works with students in organizing chemistry‐related activities and connecting students with local and national opportunities provided through ACS. She encourages students to hold regular student meetings to organize panels about research opportunities, and to prepare activities for Mole Day, the Periodic Table celebration, and liquid nitrogen ice

cream socials. In addition, Sasha volunteers for a number of on‐campus activities. One such activity was an engaging session at the last three Girl Scout TechnoQuest events called “Fun with Liquid Nitrogen,” where students use liquid nitrogen to make ice cream. She is also active in events that are targeted towards student service to the community, including “Splash into Service” and the Honors program at Meredith. She has also presented chemistry demonstrations for the welcome event at the NC Science and Engineering Fair (NCSEF) the past two years.

The 2013 NC‐ACS Chair, Melissa Pasquinelli, remarked, “I noticed Sasha’s leadership potential and thus encouraged her to get involved with NC‐ACS. In 2013, Sasha stepped up to lead the largest outreach activity for NC‐ACS, our N.C. State Fair booth, where we provide hands‐on educational activities such as chromatography butterflies and a demonstration stage show at least 6 times a day. This event is hosted over 10 days in October, and requires over 100 volunteers and a variety of supplies to be managed. Sasha, despite that she just started a new faculty position and had never participated in this activity in the past, did a phenomenal job in creating a fun experience for the volunteers and 68,000 attendees at our booth. She has continued leading this effort for the past 3 years, and NC‐ACS has received several award nominations for this activity.”

Sasha has been a volunteer with NC‐ACS since 2011. Besides her excellent work in organizing the State Fair booth, she has also been a presenter at the National Chemistry Week booth at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, helped to set‐up and clean‐up at the NCACS Local Section Conference, and volunteered at other outreach activities including the Triangle SciTech Expo held in April 2014, a science fair event held in Holly Ridge Middle School in December 2013, and the “Chemistry of Coffee” talk by an ACS national speaker in September 2014. She was elected to the Alternate Councilor position with NC‐ACS starting in 2014.

More information about this award: http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding‐and‐awards/awards/other/diversity/ycc‐leadership‐development‐award.html

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Contest Winners!

2015 ChemTube Competition Winners Announced! The winners have been announced for the 2015 NCACS ChemTube Competition in honor of National Chemistry Week! All winning groups will be awarded a monetary prize and an invitation to an upcoming event where their work will be on display. The topics of presentation ranged from the chemistry of colors in nature through the seasons to the chemical basis of hair dyes and the way that your eyes perceive color. Go to view all of the videos on the NCACS YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/NCAmChemSoc)! Category: Adult Place: 1st Name: The Wang Research Group Video: Another Colorful Gold You Might Never Have Seen Link: https://youtu.be/0sLAg2HyCHY Place: 2nd Name: Majiye Uchibeke, Chigonum Nyekwe, and Philip Oji Video: The Chemistry of Colors Link: https://youtu.be/NYVasuJKJy4 Category: 9‐12 grade Place: 1st Name: Madison Guinn, Ian Hakenson, Hannah Barclay, and Jeffrey Deronde Video: How Hair Dye Colors Our World Link: https://youtu.be/Bd1b8Cic0XY Place: 2nd Name: Caroline Newman ‐ Madison Benton, Trey Benton, Dawson Elliot, Treyl McCollum, Kloe Stackhouse, Alexandria Whitted, and Ethan Williamson Video: The Chemistry of Colors: Horror Edition Link: https://youtu.be/Qr2GpIjLfSw Place: 3rd Name: Samantha Barrows, Iain Buchner, Marlena Evans Video: Inverted Colors Link: https://youtu.be/DK‐o05BXyBw

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Category: K‐8 grade Place: 1st Name: Wesley Morris Video: Neon Lights Up Your World Link: https://youtu.be/xsYMO6yXTAg?list=PLb7Fr51ocVN_ 5hg0v9LMSFBE0ZNP5hktU National Chemistry Week is an annual celebration of the role that Chemistry plays in our everyday life, and a time to share our love of chemistry with the public. The event occurs annually around Mole Day, 10/23. The North Carolina Section of the ACS is currently seeking a volunteer to organize the 2016 event, the theme of which has not been announced yet.

Winners of the 2015 NCACS Illustrated Poem Competition The winners have been announced for the 2015 NCACS Illustrated Poem Competition in honor of National Chemistry Week! Each winner will be provided with a certificate acknowledging their efforts and an invitation to an upcoming event where their work will be on display! All of our winners were entered into the National Illustrated Poem Competition, and even though they weren’t selected, they still showed the real creativity and artistic abilities that can come from combining science and colors!

K‐2 3‐5

1st: Noe Roark (2nd grade, Wiley International Magnet Elementary)

1st: Francesca Montalvo (3rd grade, Wiley International Magnet Elementary)

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3‐5 3‐5

2nd: Gabe Sell (3rd grade, Wiley International Magnet Elementary)

3rd: Kara Vernon (3rd grade, Wiley International Magnet Elementary)

6‐8 9‐12

1st: Sarah Cassidy (8th grade, Davis Drive Middle School)

1st: Chase Ottesen (12th grade, Wake Early College of Health and Science)

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9‐12 9‐12

2nd: Emily Espinoza (12th grade, Wake Early College of Health and Science)

3rd: Anne Crabill (10th grade, Chapel Hill High School)

National Chemistry Week is an annual celebration of the role that Chemistry plays in our everyday life, and a time to share our love of chemistry with the public. The event occurs annually around Mole Day, 10/23. The North Carolina Section of the ACS is currently seeking a volunteer to organize the 2016 event, the theme of which has not been announced yet.

Special Events!

Younger Chemists Committee Holds Social Event On December 8, the Young Chemists Committee (YCC) held a social event at the Busy Bee Café, in downtown Raleigh. Eighteen young professionals attended the event, primarily from NC State and UNC Chapel Hill. At the event, Nick Pinkin presented plans for events to look forward to in the upcoming year held by the YCC, and Emilee Renk and Amber Koenig presented information on the upcoming YCC/SCC mentoring events. Busy Bee Café provided a great space and delicious food, highlighted by a loaded tater tot bar! The YCC is always looking for new members eager to get involved in planning future events. For more information, contact [email protected]. Submitted by Nick Pinkin.

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National Chemistry Week – Family Day at the Nasher Museum of Art, 11/22/15 The North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society held its annual National Chemistry Week event at the Nasher Museum of Art on November 11, 2015, celebrating the Chemistry of Colors! Students from North Carolina State University, Duke University, and volunteers from the local section provided demonstrations including a lively stage show of exciting color changes, artistic butterflies, and color‐changing cabbage juice. A number of the 500 visitors throughout the day remarked on the creativity and how excited they were to see displays tying science and art together so intimately, and said that they would love to see the program continue in the future. National Chemistry Week is an annual celebration of the role that Chemistry plays in our everyday life, and a time to share our love of chemistry with the public. The event occurs annually around Mole Day, 10/23. The North Carolina Section of the ACS is currently seeking a volunteer to organize the 2016 event, the theme of which has not been announced yet.

NCACS members visited "Worlds of M. C. Escher" at the NCMA

Approximately 60 local section members and their guests met on January 7 to tour the M. C. Escher and Leonardo da Vinci exhibits at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Attendee ticket costs were covered by the NC ACS local section, and the docent‐led tour was co‐organized by the Senior Chemists, Women Chemist and Younger Chemists Committees. Ken Tomer (NIEHS) organized the event and checked‐in members. Long time local section volunteer and former section Chair and Councilor Richard Palmer (Duke) suggested the event and visited the works for the second time, this time bringing along chemist friends whom he knew were Escher‐devotees.

The exhibitions

highlighted the work of

two remarkable artists

and innovators: M. C.

Escher and Leonado da

Vinci. Escher’s work

exploring nature,

mathematics, science,

and the realm of his imagination were enjoyed and expanded upon by

local section members sharing knowledge of the chemistry of print‐

making methods, 3D rules of symmetry from crystallography, and 2D

symmetry rules of tessellation. Escher’s best‐known prints were on view,

as well as his lesser‐known portraits and Italian landscapes, in the most

comprehensive Escher exhibition ever presented in the United States.

Chemists visiting the Escher Exhibit at the NC

Museum of Art

Checking in NC ACS members and guests at

the Escher and da Vinci Exhibits.

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Eighteen pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester notebook were also on display for attendee enjoyment. These

documents revealed his musings, drawings, experiments, and theories about numerous topics including the various ways

water flow can be controlled, the origins of mountainside fossils, and the compositions of the core of the Earth and the

moon. Written backwards and in Italian, his careful notes should be inspiring for modern scientists seeking to document

ideas, inventions, and experimental results.

NC‐ACS at the 2015 North Carolina State Fair

An annual event that calls for largest number of NC-ACS volunteers is the N. C.

State Fair. In 2015, 83 volunteers staffed the NC-ACS booth in an Agriculture

Today exhibit from October 15 – 25. The exhibit was open daily from 9 am – 9:45

pm, except for October 15, when the exhibit opened at 4 pm. Not only ACS

members (58) came to the Fairgrounds to educate the public, but 25 of the 83 volunteers were non-ACS members who devoted

their time to chemistry outreach! Thousands of chromatography butterflies were made in teaching the younger population how

water behaves as a vehicle in transporting markers’ molecules from one place to another. Countless demonstrations and

presentations were made that reminded all about the states of matter and introduced chemistries of liquid nitrogen, dry ice, and

even bubbles. Volunteers also gave out thousands of wallet sized Periodic Table cards.

Attendance at the exhibit went down to 59,133, compared with last year’s 108,884. The drop of exhibit’s attendees is hypothesized

to be due to the private marketing tent directly in front of exhibit’s entrance, which hindered the public from entering the Agriculture

Today tent. As historically recorded, the first weekend (October 17-18) and last Saturday (October 24) were the most popular days

at the exhibit, reaching between ~7,400 to ~8,400 people per day. We are very excited to have participated in the Agriculture Today

exhibit for the third year. Thank you to all of the volunteers! We hope you will be able to volunteer next year with us in the

educational exhibit. If you did not get a chance to volunteer, but are interested in volunteering while attending the N. C. State Fair in

2016, please be on a lookout for our emails starting September 2016. If you have any questions or comments, please email

[email protected].

Byron Nicholson, Richard Palmer, Dorian Canelas, and Sandy Nicholson at Iris Restaurant

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The Education Committee has a table at the NCSTA conference By Caroline Sloan The Education Committee joined with the Eastern Section of ACS to host an Exhibitor's table at the North Carolina Science Teachers’ Association (NCSTA) conference where we met teachers and shared information about the ACS and the AACT (American Association of Chemistry Teachers). The conference was held on Thursday and Friday, November 12 and 13th in Winston‐Salem. We had over 80 teachers visit our table on both days. The Eastern Section had applied for a nano‐grant for this conference and gave away an ACS cookbook at the raffle. They also bought the nice ACS banner across our table, and some periodic table pens to give away! Our section supported the John Park award ‐ a physical science award for a deserving science teacher in the state of North Carolina. This award is given in honor of Professor Emeritus of NC State University, the late John Park, who was a secondary science educator and instrumental in training teachers to incorporate technology into the curriculum. The main success of this event is the large number of teachers we meet and subsequently add to our listserv contact list for future programming and events. Also this is the second year we have paired with the Eastern Section, and we are starting to make some new connections here as well.

Mole Day Celebration at Fayetteville State University By Caroline Sloan The 3rd Annual Mole Day Celebration organized by the ACS Student Chapter at Fayetteville State University was held on October 23rd, 2015. This year’s Mole Day celebration attracted more than 200 visitors, including college students from FSU, and local high school students. The visitors enjoyed many activities such as making tie‐dye t‐shirts,

carbonated ice cream, flying robots, water rockets, Mentos and diet coke, hydrogen balloons, rainbow chemistry, chromatography butterflies, and Planetarium shows. We had a very successful day with over 200 people who came and enjoyed the day in Fayetteville! The students enjoyed making the tie‐dyed t‐shirts, and eating the carbonated ice cream the best! Over 2/3 of the students said that science is more fun after the Mole Day celebration. And 90% of the students said that they would come back to another Mole day celebration!

Our booth at the NCSTA Conference

Tie‐dying t‐shirts is so cool!

Getting ready to set up the Diet coke and

Mentos experiment!

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Opportunities! The ACS has listed grants and awards available to local sections! http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/membership‐and‐networks/ls/grantsawards.html

Grant Information CCA Outreach Event Mini-Grant

Grants of up to $500 are available to assist Local Sections in planning an outreach event unrelated to NCW or CCED in 2015.

Local Section Science Café Mini-Grant Grants of up to $500 are available to assist Local Sections in hosting a Science Café in their community.

Local Section Sustainability Programming Grant Grants up to $500 are available on a rolling basis to enable sustainability programming within your local section.

Local Section Innovative Project Grant The Local Section Innovation Project encourages local sections to conceive of and implement innovative projects. View a list of previously funded projects.

Corporation Associates Local Section Grant Grants up to $1000 are available to assist local sections promote industry focused events at the local section level.

Award Information ChemLuminary Awards

The ChemLuminary Awards honor and recognize ACS members and volunteers for their tremendous efforts on behalf of the Society.

Local Section Outreach Volunteers of the Year Sponsored by the Committee on Community Activities (CCA), Local Section Outreach Volunteers of the Year is a recognition program that highlights local section volunteers and their outstanding contributions to community outreach.

Local Section Public Relations Awards These awards are given to local sections by the Committee on Public Relations and Communications in an effort to recognize outstanding efforts by local sections to promote chemistry to the public.

Salutes to Excellence Salutes to Excellence is an award recognition program that affords ACS members and student affiliates an opportunity to recognize outstanding accomplishments, achievements or service for those who have made a positive impact on everyday life.

Katherine Glasgow has sent along a link to an ACS program that is design to help graduate students plan their careers! https://chemidp.acs.org/

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NSF‐Funded Network to Boost Nanotech Innovation September 16, 2015 | Matt Shipman

NC State University, Duke University and UNC‐Chapel Hill are launching a partnership to give businesses and educators access to expertise and facilities that will speed the development of new nanotechnology‐based products and educational opportunities. The partnership, called the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN), is led by NC State and is supported by a five‐year, $5.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

“The grant will fund efforts to open our doors and work more effectively with the public, from major corporations and start‐ups to community colleges and K‐12 educators,” says Jacob Jones, a professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and principal investigator of the grant.

The bulk of the funding will be used to hire staff who will be dedicated to reaching out to potential industry and educational partners to identify ways that RTNN can address their specific needs.

“For businesses, our goal is to help them develop new products, improve existing ones, and help them move discoveries to market,” Jones says. “For educators, we want to introduce them to nanotechnology and give them resources they can use in the classroom.” The RTNN will also make laboratories and entrepreneurs better at what they do. David Berube, a professor of communication at NC State and lead of the social science component of the grant says, “We hope that this will allow us to develop best practices that can be used to ensure that future partnerships for innovation will be successful.”

And RTNN has a variety of resources that they’ll be using to help achieve those goals.

“NC State has an enormous amount of expertise in nanotech‐related fields, from agriculture and plant biology to textiles and materials science and electrical engineering,” Jones says. “And across all three universities, our expertise touches on almost any area of nanotechnology you can think of. So, regardless of the challenges a

Students and researchers in NC State's Analytical Instrumentation Facility.

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corporation or entrepreneur may be facing, we will be in a position to connect them with relevant subject matter experts.”

In addition to providing expertise, it will also give the public access to a wide array of powerful tools to help them advance their innovations from concept to prototype and, ultimately, through manufacturing for the marketplace.

For example, NC State’s Analytical Instrumentation Facility has the ability to look at the structure of nanoparticles in three dimensions and the individual positions of atoms in a nano‐device. The latter is done using a technique pioneered at NC State called “revolving STEM” and a state‐of‐the‐art aberration‐corrected scanning transmission electron microscope.

“This will be used to help develop and fine‐tune technologies in fields from drug delivery to water purification to nanoelectronic devices,” Jones says.

Between NC State, Duke and UNC‐Chapel Hill, RTNN has a suite of other facilities that will also be valuable to outside groups. These facilities have capacities including nanofabrication of electronics, textiles fabrication and characterization, sophisticated materials characterization, and labs that evaluate interactions between nanotechnologies and the environment.

(This article is reprinted by permission from NCSU and special Thanks to Matt Shipman, NC State News Services. It was submitted to the TarHelium by Melissa Pasquinelli)

Call for Judges The Region 3 Science and Engineering Fair is looking for a few good judges!

We need YOUR help to judge elementary, junior and senior projects from Durham, Granville, Wake, Vance, Warren, Johnston, Wilson, Nash, Edgecombe, Halifax, Northampton, and Franklin counties.

The Region 3A Science & Engineering Fair will be held Saturday, February 13, 2016 at Hillside High School in Durham and judges are needed from 8 am to 1 pm.

Requirements are a background in science and/or engineering and a desire to help students in the pursuit of these topics. A brief orientation and judging rubrics (along with coffee and lunch) will be provided. Each category will be evaluated by a team of judges.

If you are available to help out with this exciting event please visit sign up today!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0445a9a929aa8‐region

If you have any questions, please contact Beth Harris (beth@seven‐oaks.net) or Tyjuanna LaBennett ([email protected])

Photo of Duke’s Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology. Credit: Benjamin Espinasse.

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Volunteer Opportunities

Call for Coordinators: Outreach Event Organizers

The North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society is looking for coordinators for a number of upcoming outreach opportunities! Details of each event are provided below:

2016 Festival for the Eno River, July 2 and 4th 2016, 10 AM – 6 PM

NCACS will hold a booth at the Festival for the Eno for the fifth year in 2016! The festival is an annual celebration of the river and its ecosystem, held at West Point on the Eno Park in Durham. This year’s festival will be held on July 2nd and 4th, from 10 am to 6 pm each day. Previous presentations have focused on climate science, sustainable energy, environmental chemistry, and kitchen chemistry. The booth is a free‐flowing presentation where visitors will cycle through at their leisure during the day.

NCACS is seeking a Co‐coordinator to help to organize this year’s efforts. The festival serves as an important outreach activity for the local section during the summer months that allows us to speak to the role of chemistry in addressing large scale environmental problems. The Co‐coordinator will work with the previous coordinators to organize the volunteers’ schedules, plan activities, purchase supplies, and organize the efforts on the ground at the event.

2016 National Chemistry Week, October 22‐29 2016

NCACS annually holds an event to commemorate National Chemistry Week, which happens at the end of October. NCW is an annual celebration of the role that Chemistry plays in our everyday life, and a time to share our love of chemistry with the public. The Section is currently seeking a volunteer to organize the 2016 event, the theme of which has not been announced yet. Previous themes have been “Chemistry, Our Health, Our Future,” “Nanomaterials: The Smallest Big Idea,” and “Chemistry Colors Our World.” Traditional activities have included an outreach activity around the date of National Chemistry Week, an Illustrated Poem Competition, and a YouTube video Competition called “ChemTube.”

We are seeking an energetic, enthusiastic individual who is interested in organizing the outreach activity for the 2016 National Chemistry Week. The venue, design, and activities can be set by the coordinator and are supported by a budget provided by the section. The coordinator will work closely with the executive committee and the previous NCW coordinator to recruit volunteers, schedule and design the activity, and coordinate the activities on the day of the event.

Why you should volunteer:

‐ Leadership development opportunity ‐ Get experience managing a budget ‐ Opportunity to educate the public on the importance of chemistry in their lives ‐ Connect with professionals and other members of ACS Outreach activities are integral to the local section’s public relations and help to get the word out about what you do for a living! If you are interested in assisting to coordinate these activities, please contact James Harrington, Outreach Coordinator at:

[email protected] or 336‐508‐6692

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Call for Nominations

Call for Nominations: Marcus E. Hobbs and Distinguished Lecturer Awards

The Executive Committee invites all NC‐ACS members to nominate worthy individuals for the NC‐ACS Distinguished

Lecturer Award. This award was established in 1982 to recognize someone from the NC‐ACS region (who doesn't need to

be an ACS member) who has made significant and recognized research contributions to the chemical sciences. The

Distinguished Lecturer serves as the keynote speaker at the annual NC‐ACS Local Section Conference each fall, and is also

given a monetary award and plaque. Nominating criteria and past award winners can be found at the following website:

http://ncacs.sites.acs.org/History/Distinguished%20Speakers%20Award/index.html

The nomination package should include a nominating letter summarizing the nominee's research contributions, a CV, and

up to two additional letters of support. We have not received very many nominations from industry or government

recently, so we hope to receive some this year! Please submit application materials electronically to [email protected] by

February 15, 2016.

In addition, the Executive Committee also invites all NC‐ACS members to nominate individuals for the Marcus E. Hobbs

service award, which was established in 1988 to recognize members who have made significant, long‐term service

contributions to NC‐ACS. The award was named for Marcus E. Hobbs, a model member who worked closely with the North

Carolina Section since becoming Chair in 1945. Dr. Hobbs was a professor emeritus of chemistry and University

Distinguished Service Professor at Duke University, and Distinguished Governor Emeritus of RTI International; he was also

instrumental in the creation of the Research Triangle Park. Nominating criteria and past award winners can be found at the

following website:

http://ncacs.sites.acs.org/History/Marcus%20Hobbs%20Award/index.html

To nominate someone for this award, please fill out the following form by March 16, 2016: http://goo.gl/9bAHuf

Call for 2016 ACS Fellows Nominations

Nominations for 2016 ACS Fellows will open February 1, 2016 and close April 1, 2016. Please follow the link at the end of this article and select the Nominations tab for selection and eligibility criteria and nomination types.

The NC‐ACS would like to help to support nominations of deserving individuals from the Local Section for the ACS Fellows program. If you have any recommendations for this prestigious opportunity, please contact Dorian Canelas ([email protected]) or Paige Presler‐Jur ([email protected]). For NC‐ACS support, please notify us by March 1st, 2016.

For more information, please see http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding‐and‐awards/fellows.html .

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NC‐ACS History

Charles Norwood Reilley, North Carolina’s apostle of analytical instrumentation By Maurice Bursey

To appreciate the importance of Charlie Reilley’s impact on analytical chemistry, you need to appreciate the failing condition of academic analytical chemistry in the 1950s. Classical wet analytical chemistry, the world of burets and pipets, volumetric and gravimetric analysis, had reached its limit. Some said that the remaining goal of pure analytical research was to perfect reagents to detect and measure each element of the periodic table, one by one. To oversimplify matters, published research tended to look like incremental improvements in the chemical structures of detecting reagents, to make methods a bit more selective or a bit more sensitive.

Who remembers the red precipitate that dimethylglyoxime makes with nickel (II)?

A telling consequence of this narrowness of vision was a perception in many of the leading universities that most analytical chemists had lost their intellectual vigor, and they began to shut down their divisions of analytical chemistry. This was unfair, of course, because there were some bright lights in the darkness, but a prejudice grew in many schools. I recall that at Johns Hopkins, where I completed my Ph.D. in the early 1960s, in spite of an intense interest in practical organic spectroscopy, I chose to major in organic chemistry with minors in physical chemistry and physics, and chose research problems that satisfied my curiosities even though the field was considered physical organic chemistry at Hopkins. No one at Hopkins considered himself (the faculty were all men then) an analytical chemist.

Into this widening abyss came a very few persons, Charles N. Reilley highly placed among them, one of the few farsighted analytical chemists who recognized that the future of analysis lay in the direction of instrumentation.

Charles Reilley was born in Charlotte on March 2, 1925, the third of four children born to Marie and Eugene Reilley. His father was a representative of a manufacturer of school furniture who passed away when Charlie was only five years old, from an illness that had originated from injuries received in World War I. Marie then raised the children on the salary of a public school teacher. Charles became intrigued by radio and electrical equipment when he was a grammar school student, and in high school he was so fascinated by science courses that he pursued science the rest of his life.

He graduated from Chapel Hill in 1947, having won undergraduate awards sponsored by Alpha Chi Sigma in his sophomore, junior, and senior years, the Archibald Henderson medal in mathematics, and election to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. Then he joined the faculty of Queens College (now Queens University Charlotte) for two years. He entered graduate school at Princeton to study under the world‐acclaimed N. H. [Nathaniel Howard] Furman, in the company of other graduate students who would create a revolution in analytical chemistry by the introduction of analytical instrumentation. Reilley was a leader in their number from the beginning. He earned an M.A. in 1951 and a Ph.D. in 1952, winning the national competition for the Merck Award in 1951 along the way.

He returned to UNC as instructor in 1951, being promoted to assistant professor in 1953, associate professor in 1956, professor in 1961, and Kenan professor in 1963. In 1957 he had won an unsolicited, unrestricted grant from the Research Corporation, the terms of which were explained in the press in this way: “If Professor Reilley feels that buying a convertible automobile will further his research, he may use the money to buy the convertible automobile.” When the grand old man

Image is borrowed from NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES , Biographical Memoirs, VOLUME 88 , CHARLES NORWOOD REILLEY 1925–1981 A Biographical Memoir by ROYCE W. MURRAY

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of American analytical chemistry, I. M. [Izaak Maurits] Kolthoff, retired from the University of Minnesota in 1962, colleagues asked him to prepare a list of names who could be invited to replace him; he replied, “There is only one: Charles Reilley.” Reilley won the American Chemical Society’s Fisher Award in Analytical Chemistry in 1965, the Herty Medal in 1968, the ANACHEM Award in Analytical Chemistry in 1972, the Manufacturing Chemists Association College Teachers Award in 1975, and the Kolthoff Award in Analytical Chemistry in 1979. In 1977 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the second analytical chemist to be so honored, after I. M. Kolthoff himself in 1958.

Charles Reilley was pre‐eminently, after Kolthoff, the world’s renaissance man of analytical chemistry. His earliest independent publications were in electrochemistry. An early study of the theory of high‐frequency titrimetry, set the tone for teaching the fundamentals of electrochemistry for fifteen years; his concept of response function additivity stimulated an enormous outpouring of work by other scientists; he foresaw and demonstrated the electroanalytical applications of chronopotentiometry and thin‐layer electrochemistry. His theoretical and experimental studies of galvanic membrane electrodes produced from a collaboration with Daniel Okun of the UNC School of Public Health a simple, inexpensive method of measuring oxygen levels in rivers and lakes, yielding a device that was patented and commercialized It became a mainstay of environmental chemical analysis.

At the same time, he developed theory and new methods for the study of multidentate metal complex chemistry, and he articulated the chelate effect, the exceptional stability of metal complexes in which the ligands have several sites for bonding to the metal ion. Among the fundamental contributions in this area may be his concept of microprotonation equilibria in such complexes, and his definitive work on the origins of chemical shifts in the NMR spectra of metal complexes led to the invention and development of NMR shift reagents.

Other early studies were in separations: his theory of sequential and mixed‐bed columns in gas‐liquid chromatography became so pervasive that, to most workers, their origins have been lost. His ideas about detector response produced the development of inverse chromatography.

Likewise, his chapter on differential kinetic analysis, with its typical emphasis on fundamental understanding, laid the groundwork for the development of the field of kinetic analysis. His work with Richard Van Duyne on low‐temperature detection and quantitative determination of the kinetics of chemical reactions that accompanied electrochemical reactions are considered landmark publications.

He was among the first to consider how computer applications could simplify the interpretation of analytical data, and his pioneering work with Thomas Isenhour on the application of pattern recognition techniques to the interpretation of mass and infrared spectra was the origin of the field of chemometrics. His last major studies were on applications of microcomputers to chemical analysis. To those who still thought of analytical chemistry in terms of the old volumetric and gravimetric methods that made no real progress after the Manhattan Project and tried to assign the new instrumental advances to other fields of chemistry, he rejoined, “Analytical chemistry is what analytical chemists do.”

His record of service was impressive too. Besides consultancies to many chemical and instrumentation companies and memberships on many governmental agency advisory panels, he served as co‐editor of Advances in Analytical Chemistry and Instrumentation, on the Advisory Council on College Chemistry, and as secretary‐treasurer and then chairman [today, of course, he would have been chair] of the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. He was elected as a councilor from the North Carolina Section of the ACS and served on the Council Policy Committee, and he chaired the Gordon Conference on Analytical Chemistry in 1960. He was central to the formation of the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry and the development of the Gordon Conference on Electroanalytical Chemistry.

It was not only for his profound influence in graduate education through research but also his genius in redeveloping the undergraduate chemistry curriculum at UNC, so that UNC became recognized in the late 1960s and 1970s as the major national innovator in undergraduate curriculum development. For almost twenty years after the new curriculum was introduced, Chapel Hill led the nation in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in chemistry.

Charlie died quite suddenly in his home on December 31, 1981. His departure sent shock waves through the international analytical chemical community. The Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry soon established the Charles N. Reilley in electroanalytical chemistry, first awarded in 1984 in connection with the Pittsburgh Conference. An appreciation of science’s loss by Thomas Isenhour can be found as a memorial to Charlie in the editorial pages of Analytical Chemistry a few months after Reilley’s passing.

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*

Once again I have plagiarized an article by myself in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, William S. Powell, ed., 1994. For those seeking a deeper appreciation of the scientific impact of Reilley’s scientific contributions, I recommend the biography by Royce Murray in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 88, 2006. I wish I had Royce’s insight.

Dearfriendsandcolleagues,ItiswithaheavyheartthatIwritetosharethenewsthatProf.GeorgeWahl,Jr.,formerChairoftheNCsectionoftheACS,passedawayonDecember14,2015.George'sobituaryandvirtualguestbookmaybefoundhere:http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsobserver/obituary.aspx?pid=176921448AfuneralmasswasheldheldSaturday,Dec.19that11amatOurLadyofLourdesCatholicChurch,2718OverbookDrive,Raleigh.Withkindregards,DorianCanelas2015Chair‐elect,NCACS

Mark Your Calendars!

NCACS YCC/SCC Mentoring Program – Speed Networking Event Feb. 18, 7‐9 pm The North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society is organizing a new Mentoring program for younger chemists through a joint effort of the Younger Chemists Committee and the Senior Chemists Committee! The kick‐off event has been planned for Feb. 18 from 7‐9 pm at the World of Beer in Cary (2036 Renaissance Park Place). The event is designed as a speed‐networking event where younger chemists can meet their prospective senior chemist mentors and match up with them based on their interests and professional goals. To sign up for the event, please go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ncacs‐mentoring‐speed‐networking‐event‐tickets‐20789460837, and contact James Harrington ([email protected]), Amber Lynn Koenig ([email protected]), or Emliee Renk ([email protected]) with any questions about the Speed Networking event, the Younger Chemists Committee, or the Mentoring Program.

Prof.GeorgeWahl,Jr.Picture from the NCSU web site

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Connect to Triangle Area Science Cafés and Pints of Science!

CAROLINA SCIENCE CAFÉ

Pints of Science http://www.pintsofscience.org/ Events are Held at: Tir Na Nog 218 South Blount St Raleigh, NC 27601 Phone: 919.833.7795 https://www.facebook.com/PintsofScience

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Education List Serves!!!! Do any of these questions pertain to you…if so, please see below to find out how to grow the readership of the NC‐ACS Education Committee listserv! **Are you interested in supporting K‐12 Educators? – Sign up for the Listserv! **Do you have a child in a K‐12 Science classroom? – Please send this email to their teacher to see if they would like to sign up! **Do you know a K‐12 Educator or Administrator? – Please forward this email to them and encourage them to sign up! The NC‐ACS Local Section is hosting a listserv focusing on supporting K‐12 Science Education! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The listserv is called ncacs_ed, and it features announcements about supporting and advancing K‐12 Science Education. The NC‐ACS is committed to assisting K‐12 Educators, and the NC‐ACS Education Committee has upcoming programs we’d love to tell you about through the ncacs_ed listserv! To subscribe to the ncchemed list, send this one‐line message to [email protected]: subscribe ncacs_ed [email protected] replacing "[email protected]" with the address you want to subscribe to the list. Helpful Hints: 1. Don’t hyperlink the email address in the one‐line message. Make sure it’s just text. 2. When you receive the confirmation email, use Option 3 to confirm the email address and accept the sign up. You can opt out of any of these lists at any time by doing the previous steps, replacing “subscribe” with “unsubscribe”, and where [email protected] the address used for you by the list. The NC‐ACS Education Committee (If you have any trouble, just email ncacs_ed‐[email protected])

NC‐ACS ListServs The official email listserve of the membership of the NC‐ACS Local Section, based on the membership rosters from ACS, is [email protected] . Inclusion on this email listserve is automatic for dues‐paying members. The following email listserves are also hosted by the NC‐ACS Local Section but are open to anyone who is interested in the chemical sciences and engineering in the region:

ncacs: Announcements of job opportunities and activities that are NOT sponsored by NC‐ACS ncacs_ycc: Announcements of the Younger Chemists Committee (<= 35 years old) ncacs_scc: Announcements of the Senior Chemists Committee (>= 50 years old) ncacs_wcc: Announcements of the Women Chemists Committee

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NC‐ACS Local Section Executive Committee Meetings

The NC‐ACS Local Section Executive Committee meets on the first Wednesday of every month. Meetings are held at the First Flight Venture Center in the Research Triangle Park at 4:30 p.m. All members are welcome and encouraged to attend! Get to know your Executive Committee! Get involved! Volunteer! Address: First Flight Venture Center 2 Davis Drive Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 The next 4 meetings are: February 3rd, 2016, 4:30 pm, @ First Flight Venture Center March 2nd, 2016, 4:30 pm, @ First Flight Venture Center April 6th 2016, 4:30 pm, @ First Flight Venture Center May 4th, 2016, 4:30 pm, @ First Flight Venture Center

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Name Affiliation Office Term Phone

Voting Members

Dorian A. Canelas Duke University Chair 2016 919-660-1537

Joonhyung Cho UNC-CH Chair-Elect 2016

Caroline Sloan Fayetteville State Secretary 2015-2016 919-280-1549

Joan T. Bursey NCBA at EPA Treasurer 2015-2016 919-5412253

Jamie Saunders Saunders Graphics TarHelium Editor 2012- 919-545-9581

Alvin L. Crumbliss Duke University Councilor 2016-2018 919-660-1540

James Harrington RTI International Councilor 2016-2018

Laura S. Sremaniak NCSU Councilor 2014-2016 919-515-2937

James Lee Chao IBM (retired) Councilor 2015-2017 919-481-2060

Melissa Pasquinelli NCSU Councilor 2014-2016 919-515-9426

Paige Presler-Jur RTI International Alternate Councilor 2014-2017 919-541-6813

Alan E. Tonelli NCSU Alternate Councilor 2014-2016 919-515-6588

Alexandra (Sasha) Ormond

Meredith College Alternate Councilor 2014 - 2016 919-906-8431

Dorian A. Canelas Duke University Alternate Councilor 2016-2018 919-660-1537

Katherine Glasgow Nomacorc Alternate Councilor 919-460-2227

Suraj Dhungana RTI International Past Chair 2015 919-541-6601

Paige Presler-Jur RTI International Past Chair 2014 and

Acting Past Chair 2015 919-541-6813

Melissa Pasquinelli NCSU Past Chair 2013 919-515-9426

Keith Levine RTI International Past Chair 2012 919-541-8886

Kenneth Tomer NIEHS Past Chair 2011 919-541-1966

Non-Voting Members

Melinda Box NCSU WebMaster. Ex Officio 919-515-2537

Maurice M. Bursey UNC-CH (retired) Historian, Ex Officio 919-493-3025

Kenneth A. Cutler NCCU Project SEED,

Ex Officio 919-530-6172

Stephen D. Cooper James Blake

Brenda Flatcher RTI International TCDG, Ex Officio

M. ter Horst UNC-CH TMRDG, Ex Officio

J. Genzer NCSU Soft Matter Discussion

Group, Ex Officio

J. W. Thompson E. Soderblom

Duke University TAMS, Ex Officio

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M. Pasquinelli NCSU Sustainability,

Ex Officio

C. Siburt Duke University Women Chemists

Committee, Ex Officio

N. Pinkin UNC-CH Younger Chemists

Committee, Ex Officio

K. Tomer and B. Kosiba

NIEHS and BK Collaborative, LLC

Senior Chemists Committee

Caroline Sloan Fayetteville State Education Committee

E. C. Bigham Retired Past Director, District IV

a letter from the chair, january 2016 · celebrations of scientific breakthroughs and innovations...

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